BakoSaint

The Saints currently lead the league in penalty yards against, net penalties against, and net penalty yards against (yards against minus yards for). Their net penalty yards against do not merely lead the league, at -205 they are nearly double the next team, Arizona, which has -106. In a season without a training camp to prepare, one would expect the leaders in penalties to be teams with a new coach, new QB, lots of new players on the offensive line. Instead, a team with a coach-QB combo in their 15th year together, returning their entire offensive line, on a roster full of veterans that is the 3rd oldest in the league, is leading by a wide margin.

The truth is that penalties can be called or missed on many plays. If the refs are looking for them, they can find more that look legit, and if they are looking away they can miss a few that should have been called. Ever since the Saints 'disrespected' the refs by 'making too much' of the call against the Rams in the NFC Championship game that robbed the Saints of a Superbowl with an outrageous call at home, the refs have sought to systematically put the Saints in their place. We disrespected the thin zebra stripes so now they are profiling us and not responding to calls when we are the victims of dirty plays. Their bias is clear, backed by evidence, and it rises to the standard of a criminal conspiracy.

So what can we pursue as a long term solution? We need to think big. The NFL needs to abolish refereeing as we know it. A more fair and effective solution would be to replace on-field refs with staff who wear body cams to capture footage but do not make calls on the field or communicate with those making calls. These staff could be younger and more athletic so they can get to the plays and get the right angles, and they don't need to know the game and become biased in it. The footage could be streamed to operators who make the calls from a cubicle and don't communicate with each other. Only if multiple operators see the same infraction could it be called. Then the operators could work in groups of 50+ on Sundays and rotate between games every series, so there is no time to systematically favor teams and focus on jerseys just watch your assignments and make calls. In the event their calls are challenged, other senior operators could handle the challenge and result so that they never knew of the challenge or result. This would take the ego out of enforcing the rules and make the NFL safer and less corrupt for all teams, but it would take away Roger Goodell's power to reward teams new to important markets or expensive stadiums and to punish teams that defy the refs authority.

So lets dream big. Lets not try to fix what can't be fixed, what is in its essence 100% corruption and power and ego and greed. Lets strive to eliminate the entire corrupt and complicit tradition of officiating in the NFL. When people tell their grandchildren that their great grandfather was an NFL referee, the correct response in the future should be 'what was that?'